{ "jurisdiction_id": "PA", "jurisdiction": "Panama", "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/panama/", "generator": "render_jid v13.3.0", "date_modified": "2026-08-17", "schema_version": "crypto-v2.0.0", "counts": { "modules": 8, "sourced_findings": 12, "source_register": 10 }, "modules": [ { "code": "crypto_licensing", "name": "Crypto Licensing", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/panama/#crypto-licensing-crypto-licensing", "standing_position": "Panama has no comprehensive crypto-asset/VASP licensing statute. The most prominent legislative attempt, Proyecto de Ley No. 697 de 2021 (the 2022 'crypto-assets' bill, re-approved by insistence in October 2022), was referred by the President to the Supreme Court in January 2023 on constitutionality grounds and was subsequently declared entirely unconstitutional ('inexequible'), per a ruling published 4 May 2023. Under Panamanian constitutional practice the law had no legal effect pending that decision and now has none at all. Oversight of crypto-adjacent activity is therefore fragmented across the Superintendencia de Bancos (SBP, banking-adjacent conduct) and the Superintendencia del Mercado de Valores (SMV, securities-adjacent token structures), applying pre-existing general law on a case-by-case basis rather than a purpose-built crypto licensing regime.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "token_classification", "name": "Token Classification", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/panama/#token-classification-token-classification", "standing_position": "Panama has no statutory taxonomy for crypto-assets (no per-se definitions of utility token, security token, e-money token, or stablecoin). The Superintendencia del Mercado de Valores (SMV) instead evaluates token structures case-by-case against the general statutory definition of 'valor' (security) under the Securities Law, as illustrated by its 2018 administrative opinion addressing both bitcoin and gold-backed tokens.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "on_chain_activity_regime", "name": "On-Chain Activity Regime", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/panama/#on-chain-activity-regime-on-chain-activity-regime", "standing_position": "No Panamanian statute, regulation, or published regulator guidance specifically addresses staking, DeFi lending, DEX operation, mining, node operation, validator activity, or tokenization. These activities fall outside any existing licensing perimeter absent an ad hoc securities or banking characterisation by SMV or SBP respectively.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "stablecoin_regime", "name": "Stablecoin Regime", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/panama/#stablecoin-regime-stablecoin-regime", "standing_position": "Panama has no statute or regulatory framework authorising, licensing, or imposing reserve/redemption requirements on stablecoin issuers. Stablecoins such as USDC and USDT circulate informally, including acceptance by the Panama City municipal government for local tax and fee payments via a bank-conversion arrangement announced in April 2025, entirely outside any national stablecoin-specific prudential regime.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "consumer_protection", "name": "Consumer Protection", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/panama/#consumer-protection-consumer-protection", "standing_position": "General consumer-protection matters (misleading advertising, commercial quality/warranty complaints) fall to the Autoridad de Protección al Consumidor y Defensa de la Competencia (ACODECO) under Law 45 of 2007, but ACODECO has no crypto-specific rulebook. Consumer-protection jurisdiction over banks is separately reserved 'exclusively' to the Superintendencia de Bancos under Article 198 of the Banking Law, and the World Bank FSAP assessment flagged this SBP/ACODECO split as difficult for consumers to navigate. Separately, the SMV has issued public investor warnings on cryptocurrencies and ICOs.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "tax_treatment", "name": "Tax Treatment", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/panama/#tax-treatment-tax-treatment", "standing_position": "Panama operates a territorial tax system under which tax rules apply only within Panamanian territory (Código Tributario, Artículo 15), so foreign-source income is generally outside the scope of Panamanian income tax. However, no crypto-specific statute currently codifies how this territorial principle applies to crypto-asset gains after the 2022-2023 virtual-asset bill (which would have expressly classified crypto as foreign-source income exempt from capital-gains tax) was declared wholly unconstitutional. Crypto tax treatment therefore rests on the general territorial principle applied case-by-case by the Dirección General de Ingresos (DGI), rather than a codified crypto rule.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "cross_border_transfer", "name": "Cross-Border Transfer", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/panama/#cross-border-transfer-cross-border-transfer", "standing_position": "No crypto-specific cross-border transfer restrictions, outbound limits, or crypto-specific reporting thresholds have been identified in Panamanian law. Cross-border crypto transfers appear to be governed only by general foreign-exchange, banking, and AML/CFT rules applicable to regulated financial institutions, which were not researched in crypto-specific detail in this run (deferred in part to the FIM aml_ctf subscription).", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "aml_cft_regime", "name": "AML/CFT Regime", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/panama/#aml-cft-regime-aml-cft-regime", "standing_position": "Crypto subscribes to the FIM aml_ctf module at the consumer level; no aml_cft_regime claims are produced in this baseline to avoid duplication. For disambiguation context only: Panama's general AML/CFT framework is led by the Superintendencia de Bancos (e.g., Rule 1-2026 on prevention of misuse of banking and fiduciary services, and Rule 3-2026 on administrative sanction criteria), but these instruments are not crypto-specific and were not researched for crypto-specific applicability in this run.", "findings": [] } ] }